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News and Commentary for ChristiansThu, 24 May 2018 14:00:49 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.6https://blackcommunitynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/cropped-bcnface-32x32.jpgBlack Community Newshttps://blackcommunitynews.com
3232So They Were Spying On Trump’s Campaignhttps://blackcommunitynews.com/so-they-were-spying-on-trumps-campaign/
https://blackcommunitynews.com/so-they-were-spying-on-trumps-campaign/#respondThu, 24 May 2018 14:00:49 +0000https://blackcommunitynews.com/?p=61625Months ago, the Old Media proclaimed that President Donald Trump was more than a bit nutty in insisting his campaign was the subject of surveillance by the Obama administration. Now it’s emerging that this wasn’t the slightest bit nutty. The New York Times reported — in a tone much like having its fingernails dragged across a chalkboard — that the FBI used an “informant” (not a “spy”!) to chat up (and in one case, dangle money at) Trump staffers and investigate Russian finagling with the 2016 election.

As one might expect, since this is considered a “pro-Trump” narrative, it must be shot down, even as the facts are coming together. Writing in the Daily Beast, “conservative” CNN political commentator Matt Lewis warned that “there are tens of millions of Americans living in this alternative universe” who think this spying on “inexperienced and sketchy” Trump campaign aides was “nefarious.” “(Y)ou have to believe that the intelligence community is wholly corrupt and utterly politicized — that there was a conspiracy (at least, at the top) to stop Trump from becoming president,” he said. “(T)his requires a conspiratorial mind.”

That’s funny. Right after the election, that was the sour-grapes line from Team Clinton. A “vast right-wing conspiracy” at the FBI under former Director James Comey conspired to stop Clinton from becoming president with his blundering announcements about her private email server. But that wasn’t considered nutty. That was what good Democrats believed. Once Trump fired Comey, the campaign conspiracy narrative switched sides.

Here’s what conservatives can declare to Matt Lewis: Our media are wholly corrupt and utterly politicized and were transparently dedicated to stopping Trump from becoming president.That’s not a kooky conspiracy theory. No one who witnessed their reporting in 2015 and 2016 should doubt it. It would not have been difficult for Team Obama to collude with them.

We would ask Lewis: Doesn’t pushing the idea that Trump colluded with the Russians require “a conspiratorial mind”? Is it fair to speculate endlessly on CNN and MSNBC about how special counsel Robert Mueller might prove collusion, when he hasn’t done so after a year of trying? The media don’t have to prove their Trump conspiracy theory to damage Trump’s political standing. It can keep that black cloud of speculation hanging over his head on every front page and every newscast.

Try this intellectual exercise: Imagine that the Justice Department under former President George W. Bush had sent a spy/informant into the Obama campaign in 2008 to see whether foreign powers were attempting to influence its “inexperienced and sketchy” aides. Hundreds of media heads would have exploded.

Now we’re at a point where we should be asking what Obama’s top intelligence hacks, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-CIA Director John Brennan, were cooking in 2016. But guess what. CNN hired Clapper, and NBC News hired Brennan. Now they are paid by the networks to tell the folks at home that Trump is nutty for insisting they did anything nefarious. Were Clapper and Brennan leaking anti-Trump dirt to the networks that have since hired them? Wouldn’t that look “wholly corrupt and utterly politicized”?

John Fund wrote in National Review that while in a greenroom of a network, he asked a journalist this question: Can’t the media spend time exploring why Team Obama sent a spy/informant into the opposing party’s campaign? “There’s only room for one narrative on all this,” the reporter replied. “And it’s all about Trump.” So much for following the facts wherever they lead instead of carefully curating facts against Trump.

Why must Matt Lewis and his media pals bemoan “two Americas” — one painted as soberly fact-based and the other destined for a rubber room — instead of considering both narratives?

L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org.

]]>https://blackcommunitynews.com/so-they-were-spying-on-trumps-campaign/feed/0A First Step for Prison Reformhttps://blackcommunitynews.com/a-first-step-for-prison-reform/
https://blackcommunitynews.com/a-first-step-for-prison-reform/#commentsWed, 23 May 2018 16:14:27 +0000https://blackcommunitynews.com/?p=61605Recently, I attended the White House Prison Reform Summit.

The fact that both the president and the vice president were at the event indicates the importance that the Trump administration ascribes to this issue.

And statistics quoted by Vice President Pence explain why our existing prison system should trouble us all.

According to the vice president, “Every year, while 650,000 people leave America’s prisons, within three years two-thirds of them are arrested again. More than half will be convicted; 40 percent will find themselves back where they started, behind bars. It’s a cycle of criminality. It’s a cycle of failure.”

The encouraging news is that we’re seeing a level of bipartisan cooperation on this issue that is rare in Washington these days.

The House Judiciary Committee has just passed a prison reform bill called the First Step Act that is co-sponsored by Republican Doug Collins, R-Ga., and Congressional Black Caucus Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

The bill was voted out of committee by a vote of 25-5, with 15 Republicans and 10 Democrats voting for it.

Moderating one of the panels at the White House summit was a former Obama White House advisor, Van Jones, who has come out in support of the First Step Act.

On his Facebook page, Jones called the legislation, “A big win for men and women in federal prison.”

The point person in the White House on this issue is presidential advisor Jared Kushner, who deserves much of the credit for raising the profile of the importance prison reform and for recruiting the broad base of support.

The First Step Act establishes new tools for prison management to conduct ongoing risk assessments of each prisoner, evaluating the likelihood of the prisoner recommitting a crime. The profiling also establishes a basis for programs and job training to assist in rehabilitation of these individuals.

Prisoners productively participating in these programs, and showing progress in behavior and attitudes, are rewarded with increased phone time, visits and transfers to facilities closer to their homes and families.

Those achieving a low-risk profile of recidivism may be eligible for at-home confinement or for being transferred to halfway houses for the final period of their sentences.

A group of 121 former federal law enforcement officials have signed a letter urging the passage of the First Step Act.

The list of signatories includes one former U.S. attorney general and five former U.S. deputy attorney generals. And, in the aforementioned spirit of bipartisanship, the list includes Bush Administration Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Mary Jo White, appointed by Barack Obama as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the first and only woman to be U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Despite the impressive core support for this bill, there is opposition on the left and the right.

Several high-profile Black Caucus Democrats, including Senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker and Representatives John Lewis and Sheila Jackson Lee, signed a letter in opposition. Also the NAACP opposes the bill.

Complaints include that the risk assessment system is “untested” and that the bill only focuses on prison reform and not sentencing reform.

But the assessment system is not “untested.” A good number of states have enacted similar measures with great success. Texas passed similar reforms in 2007, resulting in $3 billion in savings and producing the lowest crime rate in the state in almost 50 years.

There is broad consensus that sentencing reform is also needed. But reform dealing with recidivism is not dependent on this. So why make the politics much more complicated and the probability of passage much lower?

Thoughtful reform to deal with recidivism is both humane and economically sensible. President Trump said he’ll sign it if Congress passes it. They should.

COPYRIGHT 2018 STAR PARKER

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

Star Parker is the founder and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. Contact her at www.urbancure.org.

Is “Deep State” just a conspiracy theory, or is evidence coming to light?

“The Deep State is being exposed,” the Conservative Review’s Deneen Borelli said. “And Democrats and Deep State operatives are doing everything to hide truth from Americans.”

I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes – and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!

]]>https://blackcommunitynews.com/watch-trump-campaign-spy-exposed/feed/1Here’s How Trump Wants to Reduce Prescription Drug Priceshttps://blackcommunitynews.com/heres-how-trump-wants-to-reduce-prescription-drug-prices/
https://blackcommunitynews.com/heres-how-trump-wants-to-reduce-prescription-drug-prices/#respondTue, 22 May 2018 17:26:25 +0000https://blackcommunitynews.com/?p=61590President Donald Trump continues to address the American people’s practical needs. Now, he is out to reduce drug costs with his latest initiative “American Patients First.”

Barack Obama recognized there was a health care problem. But he took the wrong action by pushing through Congress legislation that dramatically raised the cost of health insurance and reduced the medical choices for many Americans.

After making the health care problem worse, the Left fixated on pharmaceutical costs. And prices are too high. Noted Alex Azar II, the Secretary of Health and Human Services: “This burden has become a threat to the financial security of far too many of our seniors, neighbors and communities.”

The administration identified several issues: high list prices, government health care programs paying more than necessary, excessive out-of-pocket costs, and “foreign governments free-riding off of Americans investment in innovation.”

In fact, drugs are cost-effective compared to other medical treatments, such as surgery and hospitalization. Moreover, medicine is expensive to make—most research ends up as dry holes. The few successful pharmaceuticals must pay for the failures. Other countries employ price controls, taking advantage of Americans who pay the bulk of the costs.

Unsurprisingly, liberals propose to use the nostrums of the past to reduce pharmaceutical costs. Price controls, of course. Restrictions on patient choice. Limiting patent rights, which create the incentive for drug research. Government “negotiation” through use of its near monopoly market power.

The president is determined to reduce drug costs. “One of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs.” But that is not his only important goal.

Noted Ronald Bailey of Reason magazine, “Imposing price controls would lower prices, but at the cost of creating shortages, developing fewer new drugs, and—ultimately—compelling Americans to lead sicker and shorter lives.” Thus, government should use markets and competition to lower prices, while preserving the incentive for companies to develop new medicines. Uncle Sam must not kill the golden goose.

President Trump, who has made economic recovery a major priority, has just such a strategy. Overall, he is pushing competition, incentives, and negotiation.

First, he emphasized “reducing regulatory burdens so drugs can be gotten to the market quicker and cheaper.” Safety is essential, but needlessly delaying drug approvals denies potentially life-saving medicine to needy patients, creating even more harm. Under Commissioner Scott Gottlieb the Food and Drug Administration already has accelerated drug approvals.

An important aspect of the president’s regulatory reform is to prevent drug makers from gaming the rules. Companies are adept at taking advantage of laws and regulations that are supposed to protect the public.

President Trump’s second initiative is to speed approval of “over-the-counter medicines so that patients can get more medicines without prescriptions.” These drugs are cheaper. Allowing people to purchase them also saves the cost of going to the doctor for a prescription.

The third prong of the president’s plan is to increase competition, which is critical in any free market. Secretary Azar cited the administration’s Drug Competition Action Plan, which “makes the approval process of generic drugs more efficient, encouraging lower prices through robust competition.”

Indeed, generic drugs are one of the most important means to cut the cost of brand name drugs. More generics were approved last year than ever before even as patent rights were preserved. Explained President Trump: “Our patent system will reward innovation, but it will not be used as a shield to protect unfair monopolies.”

Fourth, the administration is reforming rules governing Medicare. These changes saved recipients $320 million in out-of-pocket costs. HHS also encouraged substitution of generics, saving the government money as well. The agency is experimenting with other initiatives to achieve better medical value and planning to help Medicare D plans negotiate better drug prices.

The president also is changing Medicare rules to make prices more transparent. Barring Medicare Part D contracts from prohibiting pharmacists from telling patients when costs would be lower without using insurance. Providing more cost information to patients. And restricting pharmaceutical rebates which hurt consumers.

Moreover, the administration plans to review Obamacare taxes and rebates which raise pharmaceutical costs and take steps to end “the global freeloading once and for all,” as the president put it. Other important changes include requiring drug firms to include list prices in their ads.

Pharmaceuticals are among the many modern medical miracles which we all enjoy. Azar observed that “We are living through the most innovative era in the history of medicine. Our free-market system has produced cures and treatments that seemed impossible a short while ago.”

Drug costs still need to come down. It is vital, however, that Washington not discourage continued innovation. The president’s reforms strike precisely that balance.

Ken Blackwell a Senior Fellow at the Family Research Council, serves on the Boards of Directors of the NRA and the Club for Growth. He was a Domestic Policy Advisor to the Trump/Pence Presidential Transition Team.

The views expressed in opinion articles are solely those of the author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Black Community News.

]]>https://blackcommunitynews.com/heres-how-trump-wants-to-reduce-prescription-drug-prices/feed/0Democrats Aren’t Concerned About THIS Kind of Russian Collusionhttps://blackcommunitynews.com/democrats-arent-concerned-about-this-kind-of-russian-collusion/
https://blackcommunitynews.com/democrats-arent-concerned-about-this-kind-of-russian-collusion/#commentsTue, 22 May 2018 14:00:18 +0000https://blackcommunitynews.com/?p=61581Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump and the Russians colluded to rig the 2016 presidential election so far has borne little fruit. The Democrats and their media allies would love to find some Russian collusion and interference. I can help them discover some, but I doubt that they will show much interest. Here it goes.

For years, Russia has been the world’s largest oil producer. Within recent times, the U.S. has edged Russia out of the No. 1 spot. Much of the increased U.S. production is attributable to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the shale formations in Texas and North Dakota. Now the U.S. is a net exporter of oil. Exports of oil have exceeded oil imports since 2011. This hasn’t sat well with Russia, which has taken measures to hinder our oil productivity.

An American Spectator magazine story points to the kind of Russian collusion and domestic meddling that meets the approval of Democrats, leftists and their media allies. The story is aptly titled “Russian funding of U.S. environmental groups shows how collusion is done” (http://tinyurl.com/y897kbt3). A 2014 U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee report identified that the San Francisco-based Sea Change Foundation receives funding from a Bermuda-based shell company known as Klein Ltd. Klein Ltd. was created by attorneys from Wakefield Quin, a law firm that has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Klein Ltd. operates as a “pass-through” organization for foreign funds going into the U.S.

The IRS requires nonprofit organizations to file 990 forms that report their activities. Those 990s show that Klein Ltd. contributed $23 million to the Sea Change Foundation in 2010 and again in 2011. That’s about half of the contributions Sea Change Foundation received during those years. Those same 990 forms show that the Sea Change Foundation distributed more than $20 million in grants in 2010 and 2011 to environmental organizations. It gave more than $40 million in grants to leftist environmental groups, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, The Sierra Club Foundation, the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, the Tides Foundation, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the World Wildlife Fund.

In return for the grant money, those leftist environmentalists were “to promote awareness of climate change,” “reduce reliance on high carbon energy,” “educate the public about climate and clean energy” and “promote climate and clean energy communications.” A U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee report, titled “Russian Attempts to Influence U.S. Domestic Energy Markets by Exploiting Social Media,” details that the environmental groups used the Russian money to protest the process of fracking and fight the building of the Keystone XL pipeline. If environmentalists can thwart U.S. oil production, Russia, which is a major energy supplier to Europe, stands to gain greater economic and political power.

Rep. Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, has raised the possibility that those complicit in the scheme to use American environmentalists to advance Russian propaganda and interests could be in violation of federal statutes that apply to foreign agents lobbying in behalf of foreign interests.

Russia is also a major supplier of natural gas to all of Europe. U.S. natural gas producers long wished to export some of their product to Europe and Japan to take advantage of higher prices. But up until 2016, they were blocked by natural gas export restrictions. In the case of natural gas, the Russians didn’t have to bribe environmentalists to do their dirty work. They had willing support from U.S. industrial giants such as Dow, Alcoa, Celanese and Nucor, members of America’s Energy Advantage. These U.S. companies lobbied against natural gas exports, saying that it would be unpatriotic to allow unlimited natural gas exports. Export restrictions kept natural gas prices artificially low and gave U.S. manufacturing companies a raw material advantage. The lifting of export restrictions has raised natural gas prices in the U.S. but lowered them in the recipient countries and weakened Russia’s economic and political hold on Europe. In my book, that’s a good thing.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.

The views expressed in opinion articles are solely those of the author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Black Community News.

]]>https://blackcommunitynews.com/democrats-arent-concerned-about-this-kind-of-russian-collusion/feed/1Marginalizing Melaniahttps://blackcommunitynews.com/marginalizing-melania/
https://blackcommunitynews.com/marginalizing-melania/#commentsMon, 21 May 2018 19:33:56 +0000https://blackcommunitynews.com/?p=61573Need more evidence that there are two Americas? Here: Left-wing hatred of Melania Trump is inversely proportional to flyover admiration for the first lady.

In just the last month, late-night clown Jimmy Kimmel mocked Trump’s Slovenian accent, CNN contributor April Ryan attacked her as “not culturally American,” former Hillary Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines derided her genteel presence at former first lady Barbara Bush’s funeral, and horror writer Stephen King snickered at her hospitalization this week for kidney surgery.

Yet, while partisans in the political press and entertainment media work hard to stoke division against and resentment of the Trump administration, “Melania” is now among the fastest-growing baby names in the nation, according to recently released Social Security data. And a new poll by anti-Trump CNN released on Monday reported a 10 percent jump in the first lady’s favorability ratings — from 47 percent in January to 57 percent last week.

That’s nearly 6 in 10 Americans with a positive view of FLOTUS. Uh-oh!

Imagine how much higher those impressive numbers would be if the same celeb tabloid reporters and TV hosts who slavered over the Obamas in Us magazine and on The View afforded Melania Trump the same courtesies. Imagine if the same couture divas who organized “Runway to Win” Obama campaign fundraisers and published breathless weekly reports on “Michelle Obama’s Best Looks Ever” harnessed their influence to promote Trump’s style and fashion sense.

Despite Trump’s successful career as an internationally photographed model featured in Harper’s Bazaar, GQ, Vanity Fair and Vogue, lib-dominated fashion and celebrity magazines have shunned her. Pop culture editors and producers — who turned Barack and Michelle Obama into the Beltway Brangelina, promoting their election campaign, re-election campaign, books and every last pet project — have ghosted her.

Why? Fear.

Melania Trump is not just strikingly beautiful. She is worldly, well-traveled and well-read. She speaks English, French, German, Italian and Serbian, in addition to her native Slovenian — more languages than any other woman who has served as America’s first lady. Her devotion to son Barron is exemplary. Her aversion to limelight and lack of political ambition are refreshing. So is her ability to refrain from public grievance-mongering over “sacrifices” and trade-offs made between work and home life (looking at you, Hill and ‘Chelle O).

The hostile White House press corps blames Trump’s own reticence for the publicity vacuum around her. But I believe there’s something deeper at work:

More exposure to this interesting and remarkable woman would mean more familiarity with her. More familiarity with her might mean more popularity. And God forbid there be more Republican women in the public eye who can compete with — and win against — the usual parade of militant kvetchers and moaners who pass themselves off as feminist role models.

Doubling down, both Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama have assailed all women who didn’t vote for their political agendas as brainwashed by their husbands or selfishly unenlightened. “In light of this last election, I’m concerned about us, as women, and what we think about ourselves and about each other,” Obama complained at the United State of Women summit in California last week. “What is going on in our heads where we let that happen.”

It’s called choice. It’s called rejecting the tired old ideas that some women are more equal than others or that one party has a gender-based monopoly over the other. Smug Democratic divas who unleash their contempt for independent-minded women instead of working to win them over have learned nothing from the 2016 election.

So Trump, like so many prominent GOP women before her, will continue to be snubbed, humiliated and demonized by narrative control freaks because women on the right threaten the cultural hegemony of the left. Black or white, rich or poor, centrist or “far right,” native-born or naturalized, Republican mothers, wives and daughters must be otherized and forced to stay in media-manufactured lanes.

When leftists can’t win on their ideas, they resort to marginalizing the messengers of ideology they abhor — and their mates. It’s not an attractive look.

Michelle Malkin is host of “Michelle Malkin Investigates” on CRTV.com. Her e-mail address is writemalkin@gmail.com.

The views expressed in opinion articles are solely those of the author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Black Community News.

]]>https://blackcommunitynews.com/marginalizing-melania/feed/1Christian Foster Care and Adoption Agencies in Kansas Won’t Have to Worry About Thishttps://blackcommunitynews.com/christian-foster-care-and-adoption-agencies-in-kansas-wont-have-to-worry-about-this/
https://blackcommunitynews.com/christian-foster-care-and-adoption-agencies-in-kansas-wont-have-to-worry-about-this/#respondMon, 21 May 2018 16:30:31 +0000https://blackcommunitynews.com/?p=61555Christian foster care and adoption agencies that refuse to place children with homosexuals won’t face government penalties because of a new law Governor Jeff Colyer recently signed.

The law applies to agencies that receive state funds. The government can’t revoke licenses or permits solely because the agency believes placing children with certain kinds of people would conflict with their religion’s tenets. The governor said that more children in the state will have the opportunity to be adopted.

“In some circumstances we are seeing faith-based adoption providers leaving states, resulting in fewer providers of adoptions and other critical services,” Colyer said. “This bill is about ensuring that doesn’t happen here and making sure we have a full range of services available to Kansas kids.”

State legislators and advocacy groups opposed and praised the bill, but there is little middle ground on the subject of creating a law that permits organizations with a religious underpinning that do business with state government on adoption and foster care placements to selectively avoid interaction with Kansas gays, lesbians and other adults eager to build a family.
…
Under the measure, child-placement agencies working in association with the state of Kansas cannot be required to perform, assist, counsel, recommend, consent to, refer or otherwise participate in placement of a child for foster care or adoption if it would violate the organization’s sincerely held religious belief.

While there were many who expressed alarm at the bill’s signing, the governor attracted support from Secretary of State Kris Kobach, state legislators and lobbyists.

Religious foster care and adoption agencies that receive taxpayers’ money are burdened by the “constitutional” separation of church and state, a doctrine neither stated nor implied in the U.S. Constitution. Without religious-freedom protection, which is in the Constitution, these agencies were required to submit to “anti-discrimination” policies.

The state’s protection law is necessary to unburden these agencies and allow them to perform the services they were created to provide. The individuals who run these organizations are also taxpayers.

]]>https://blackcommunitynews.com/christian-foster-care-and-adoption-agencies-in-kansas-wont-have-to-worry-about-this/feed/0A Prayer for Academiahttps://blackcommunitynews.com/a-prayer-for-academia/
https://blackcommunitynews.com/a-prayer-for-academia/#commentsMon, 21 May 2018 14:21:21 +0000https://blackcommunitynews.com/?p=61548Wednesday, May 3, was our country’s National Day of Prayer. It was a day where millions of Americans gathered at various venues in various communities petitioning God for his forgiveness, protection and providence.

My profession is education. I am an academician. My career has been entirely dedicated to the ivory tower and its ideals. I serve as a university president, a position I have held for 16 years. It is in this context that I offer the following. It comes from the conviction that my profession has failed our culture and its children.

My hope is that at least a handful of pedagogues in the halls of academe will set aside their confidence (dare I say intellectual hubris), perhaps just for a day, and join me as we seek God’s forgiveness and repent of what we have done to our kids and our culture.

This is my prayer.

God, you have told us that if your people will humble themselves and seek your face and repent that you will hear us and heal us. You have also told us that if we confess our sins that you are faithful and just and that you will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God, we bow before you today. We are humble. We repent. Please hear our prayer. Please, forgive us.

Forgive us for what we have taught our children.

Forgive us for teaching them that evil is good and good is evil, that darkness is light and light is darkness, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. Forgive us for teaching them that left is right and right is wrong, that truth is false and falsehood is true.

Forgive us for teaching them that a career is more important than character, money is more important than morality, and information is more important than integrity.

Forgive us, Holy God, for teaching sexual promiscuity in our schools more effectively than we have taught sexual restraint to our students. Forgive us for teaching self-esteem better than we have taught science and civics. Forgive us for teaching values clarification more than virtuous behavior. Forgive us for diminishing the value of marital fidelity and leaving our kids clueless as to how to defend the definition of marriage.

Forgive us for teaching the generation that follows us to believe it has the authority to define life for the generation that follows it. Forgive us for teaching them that “choice” gives them the power to take away the right of the weakest to choose.

Forgive us for our narcissism: For proclaiming we are “as God;” that “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for and that we are the change we seek.”

Forgive us for making justice unjust and injustice just. Forgive us for celebrating lies rather than pursuing truth. Forgive us for our self-refuting duplicity of pedantically preaching that the tolerant do not have to tolerate those they find intolerable.

Forgive us for the hypocrisy of hating those we find hateful.

Forgive us for diminishing human dignity and for dumbing down the definition of the imago Dei to the imago dog; for pretending our identity is little more than the sum total of our sexual inclinations, appetites, proclivities, passions, feelings and desires.

Forgive us for pretending that women should not be subjected to the power and passions of men but then electing men who subject women to their every delusional fantasy and dysphoric passion.

Forgive us, God, for teaching young men to view young women as nothing but objects of recreation. Forgive us for teaching our young women to accept this insult to their dignity.

Forgive us for boasting of freedom while yet living in bondage to our own deception.

Forgive us for separating head from heart and fact from faith.

Forgive us for severing belief from behavior and religion from reason.

Forgive us for “removing the organ and demanding the function” — for creating “men without chests” — for the foolishness of “gelding the stallion and bidding him be fruitful.”

Forgive us for confusing liberty with license and freedom with fascism.

Forgive us for teaching our children to worship government more than God and to trust in Caesar more than Christ.

God, we ask you to forgive us for what we have taught our children. We ask that you rescue them from the ugly hell of our own making. We humbly petition you to grant a reprieve of your judgment. We ask that you rescue on sons and daughters from the bondage of our arrogance and pride.

In the name of Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we pray: Please forgive us for what we have taught our children.

God, with broken hearts and a contrite spirit we pray: Please forgive us.

Amen.

This prayer is an excerpt taken from Everett Piper’s book “Not A Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth.”

Everett Piper, president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University and a columnist for the Washington Times, is the author of “Not A Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery 2017).

]]>https://blackcommunitynews.com/a-prayer-for-academia/feed/2Starving the Beast: Abortion Advocates Won’t Like This Proposed Rule from the Trump Administrationhttps://blackcommunitynews.com/starving-the-beast-abortion-advocates-wont-like-this-proposed-rule-from-the-trump-administration/
https://blackcommunitynews.com/starving-the-beast-abortion-advocates-wont-like-this-proposed-rule-from-the-trump-administration/#respondFri, 18 May 2018 18:56:32 +0000https://blackcommunitynews.com/?p=61525The U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services proposed a new rule on Friday to update federal regulations to ensure compliance with the Title X family planning grant program’s prohibition on using taxpayers’ money to kill unborn babies as a method of family planning.

Facilities that perform abortions as family planning or provide abortion referrals are barred from receiving funds under this program. Although facilities that receive these grants may continue abortion counseling, they’re no longer required to counsel under the proposed rule.

The new regulation is similar to a rule President Ronald Reagan implemented that requires a “bright line” of physical and financial separation between Title X funding and facilities that kill unborn babies. In theory, a particular Planned Parenthood location could still receive taxpayers’ money if they didn’t perform abortions or provide referrals at that location.

Bill Clinton reversed the Reagan-era regulation. George H.W. Bush didn’t reinstate it, and Barack Obama banned states from defunding abortion providers. Now President Donald Trump seeks to prevent abortion providers from using part of American taxpayers’ income to snuff out life in the womb.

The new regulation would also strengthen reporting requirements for victims of rape, sexual assault, or incest.

The regulations were sent Thursday to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, which must review all agency regulations. It’s not clear when the review will be finished, but the process can often take months. Once approved, the regulations would be published and open for a public comment period.

Conservative and anti-abortion groups have increased pressure on the administration in recent weeks to reform the Title X program as a way to cut away at funding for Planned Parenthood.

This month, hundreds of congressional Republicans, and about 80 anti-abortion groups, sent letters to HHS Secretary Alex Azar demanding the changes.

]]>https://blackcommunitynews.com/starving-the-beast-abortion-advocates-wont-like-this-proposed-rule-from-the-trump-administration/feed/0A Public School Smears Pro-Life Guest Speaker Then Admits It Liedhttps://blackcommunitynews.com/a-public-school-smears-pro-life-guest-speaker-then-admits-it-lied/
https://blackcommunitynews.com/a-public-school-smears-pro-life-guest-speaker-then-admits-it-lied/#commentsFri, 18 May 2018 14:00:33 +0000https://blackcommunitynews.com/?p=61513It definitely didn’t turn out exactly the way I had expected. But I’m still grateful for it all. Adversity is incredibly illuminating. I was invited to share my story of adoption at Vicksburg High School, a public school, in Michigan. I submitted an outline for the ‘Life Has Purpose’ presentation and the principal of the school, Keevin O’Neill, approved it without any changes.

Students reacted positively, laughing, clapping, and engaging throughout the whole assembly. I even had three rounds of “Q&A” where students came up on stage to compete for free iTunes gift cards. There was no obvious opposition during the assembly. Of course, I’m not naïve. Even though I was not political and never mentioned off-limit “trigger” words, I know that even the mention of adoption can send some pro-abortion advocates into a tailspin. That spin started the moment I finished.

The same principal who had approved my adoption-centered outline, who wasn’t present at the assembly, did what he told me in a lengthy phone call was “politically correct”.

He threw me under the bus.

Less than 24 hours after my multimedia talk, the school issued a public statement, via school-wide email and Facebook (they’ve since deleted the post), falsely claiming it was “overtly political.” On Facebook they reinforced their original post with another reply stating: “We can assure you that the message that the High School had agreed to through repeated contacts with the speaker was one of inspiration, motivation, and unity. The actual content of the presentation was not in keeping with that agreement.”

Twenty four hours after the presentation, the outgoing Superintendent—Charles Glaes—took to local news (here and here) to smear me and The Radiance Foundation, declaring that “if you go beyond what was heard and look at the [Radiance Foundation’s] website, lots of people are going to be very alarmed.”

Got it. If you’re a Christian who actively employs faith, reason and compassion into your life-affirming work, you’re not suitable public school speaker material. But if you’re a public school administrator, you can lie with impunity.

After sending a Cease and Desist letter from our attorney, the Vicksburg Community School District responded within 24 hours with a draft apology. They quietly posted the final version of the apology—admitting what they previously posted was untrue—on the district’s website on May 15th. Unfortunately, they refuse to communicate the truth by the same means (school-wide email and Facebook) in which they spread the lie.

They couldn’t have students and parents know how poorly they handled this situation. They couldn’t have the public know they’d rather defame an outside speaker than stand with integrity and honor behind someone who inspired students and staff with a life-affirming message. Instead, they chose to appease a vocal and venomous minority who aren’t concerned with the facts, who aren’t concerned with tolerance, and who aren’t concerned that they demonize those with whom they disagree.

I called the principal the day after the school’s defamatory Facebook post; it was both enlightening and enraging. He kept agreeing with me that what the school posted was not true and that it emboldened some students and parents to promote a false narrative of what happened. He praised me and the presentation, saying: “I want you to know that I’ve had so many students come to me and tell me how your message was received in a positive way and how much they appreciated your message and how much they enjoyed your personality, your story, how much they appreciated the way you treated everybody.”

Then O’Neill said this: “I agree. I am so sorry about all of this…I truly apologize that our apology could be taken, I guess, could be taken that you guys lied to us. I think it had to be put out there in a politically correct way to counter some of the stuff that was coming at us. I truly understand where you’re coming from…We made a mistake to some of the wording in this posting. It was in response to a lot of the negativity I was taking here. But you are correct. You truly are correct. The post never should have gone out.”

This goes to a much deeper issue than this public speaker being thrown under the bus for “political correctness”. How much does your public school lie to you as the parent? They got caught this time in a needless huge deception. This undermines the credibility of those tasked with the awesome responsibility to shape your child.

This sheer lack of honesty, integrity and responsibility matters. Yet in our society, we expect far less from our elected leaders, pastors, and public educators than we expect of ourselves. Why? Character should always matter.

Seven days after the public smear of my reputation, that principal was appointed as the new Superintendent. What if he had not been “politically correct” in this situation? Would that have impacted his new appointment?

I don’t ever want to be politically correct. It’s an oxymoron. I want to be morally correct. When torn between what’s right and what’s wrong, I pray for the fortitude to do what’s right and good—no matter the circumstances.

Ryan Bomberger is the Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of The Radiance Foundation. He is happily married to his best friend, Bethany, who also happens to be the Executive Director of Radiance. They are adoptive parents with four awesome munchkins. Ryan is a creative agitator and international public speaker who just loves illuminating that every human life has purpose.

The views expressed in opinion articles are solely those of the author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Black Community News.